Can it be July already?

To all my Courage Friends:

I could have really used our time together when it came to finishing up the school year after being on leave for 5 months. I had to have the courage to get up every morning and go to work and know that next year would be better (I hope). I also had the courage to speak up and ask for a different teaching assignment for next year, 4th grade. I will have a great team to work with which I am REALLY looking forward to.

Alan and I put our house on the market in May and sold it in two weeks. We are moving next week to the Skyline area of Portland. We will live on 3/4 of an acre in a great neighborhood. Sierra will be 9 months old in 5 days! We are going to Maui on the 14th for a week which I am really looking forward to. All that has been keeping me on my toes for so many months will be finished up and I will be able to relax.

The better question is...where are we going to have our 1 year reunion?!?!

Gutter Slut Whore Dogs and the Book of John

Last November, I attended a Courage and Renewal retreat for facilitators on the West Coast. Gathering with dear friends whom I've known for years and meeting folks for the first time, the community carried an intense focus to deepen relationships and recenter spiritually. During one of the sessions, I heard my inner teachers speaking loud and clear: "Where are the miracles?" As usual, I am grateful when they speak their wisdom. I know that I am listening for miracles more in my teaching, and I celebrate when I actually notice what they are.

I know life is filled with challenges, and I know there are more ways that I can even name in words. When I read this blog, however, I return to who you all are in community: kind, forgiving, welcoming people who deeply seek to know who each of you are in solitude and as a group. This blog has hosted words of joy and sadness, celebrations and loss. Sometimes I hear stories that only few of us knew about and sometimes I am reminded of words shared with the entire group at one of our retreats last year. But what I am really noticing today are the miracles held within your relationships. You each show up in your own way, in your own time and on your own feet. You still come together after months without a retreat- those wildly unique and deeply personal moments of caring that you all gave yourselves at several retreat centers around the state. I imagine many of us had conversations last night, whether there at the bowling alley or away in quiet moments, and if you are like me, your mind filled with mental photos of each person's face. And if you were like me, your face quietly lit with each picture!

I feel deep gratitude for my inner teachers and their reminding me what is important to me in life. And I feel deeply grateful that each of you fill one gigantic and constantly growing answer as I find miracles.

Please don't hate me?

For all those who would like to beat me right now because I can't seem to manage to keep things in line on the blog, I apologize. Things are good, but incredibly nuts.  I eat, sleep, and work. I check my email once in a while with good intentions of getting back to people when I have time enough to devote the attention they deserve. Instead, I end up making people think they don't matter when they don't hear from me and think I've dropped off the edge of the earth (not quite, but Molalla is close...). So for all of those who would like to throw a shoe at my head, I apologize and will try to keep up a bit better. I will be dragging myself into Hollywood Bowl because I do want to see people, even if I fall asleep and drool on someone's lovely multi-colored loafers. Here's hoping February has room for a little balance.

words are divine in 2009

So it is a cheezy title but that is what my kids at school and I are doing for the new year. We are hunting out new and awesome words to expand our vocabulary. I read an article the other day that stated that what separates low SES kids besides their life experience is their lack of vocabluary and exposure to the world around them. I thought Hey! I can do the vocabluary part!

What is new with us? I went skiing for the first time in ten years and I suck. We were going to go again this weekend but were snowed in. I have read about 30 childrens chapter books over the past three weeks and have been sledding so much that I am still sore (the oppinion of a six year old is that every moment there is snow we should be in it) so we were.

I am in another battle with fluency with Miriam as her teacher is sure although she is in the highest reading group and has 100% comprehension on everything that they read that because she can not read fast enough they should drop her down. I feel like an alien in a foreign world sometimes.

New years goals? Another tri or two I suppose, maybe learning to ski with some kind of grace, more soccer and less time caught up in classroom politics. A deeper understanding of each of my students gifts and how to inspire those gifts within them, more dancing with Miriam, deeping my time with Kevin, quiet time without judgement of myself and eating a lot of fruit. Am I cracking you up yet? Thats me.

Hopes...Dreams...Wishes

Tonia what a great idea for kicking off the New Year.

I have never been one for making a resolution but I do have hopes, dreams and wishes for 2009. My dreams came true in 2008 when we were blessed with Sierra. She has been such a wonderful addition to our family. My courage friends showed me what life can be if I take time for myself...now in 2009 I hope to find time for myself. Now that I said that what are we doing for the January reunion?!?

My hopes, dreams and wishes for 2009 are grand and I have no idea how I will fit it all in. I guess that is why we ring in a new year on a regular basis. As I prepare to head back to work in February I am determined not to let the papers that need to be graded stress me out. I hope to leave work at 3:30 four days a week, go to the gym for some "me" time and then pick Sierra up no later than 5:30. My hope is to only stay at work late one day a week to grade papers...I don't want to be one of 'those' moms who bring home all this work and have little time to spend with their children.

I dream of "me" time...hiking, going to the gym, scrapbooking, reading, stamping and going out with friends. I don't want "me" time to be cleaning, laundry, cooking, yard work.

I have grand plans for a road trip with my Mom and Sierra in late June or early July to Southern California to see my brother. I also want a tropical vacation (a dream) where I can swim up to a bar and do nothing but lay by a pool. I also have my 10 year high school reunion this summer and my wish for this is to look better than I did 10 years ago! Oh and don't forget we are all supposed to go away for a weekend....who is working on this?!?

Oh my...I guess I have a lot of hopes...dreams...wishes...
Wendy

What's up in the new year?

So here's the update from me...

Did you know that it is actually quite difficult to catch snowflakes on your tongue while driving a convertible? Hey, I had to try... managed to get one or two. Heated seats are a glorious invention!

School life is going well. The small-town feel works well for me, as I don't have anyone breathing down my neck telling me what to do. It's nice to work in a district that actually treats its teachers as if they know something. My learning curve is way up, but I'm having a great time.

Just when I thought I was finished coaching and I could have a private ceremonial LEGO melting, my little geek squadron pulled a coup and made the state championship tournament, which means another month of living la vida LEGO.

It will be a difficult time for my building going back to work tomorrow. One of our sixth grade teachers, who was in remission from cancer, suffered a brain anurism (sp?) and passed away on Christmas eve. She was an icon in the school and community, and it's going to be rough on everyone for awhile.  Very sad.

That's pretty much the rundown of life right now. How about you all?

Asta la vista, baby!

T